A Gaza-based journalist who has appeared frequently on BBC Arabic since the beginning of the war expressed support for violence against Jews and praised terrorist attacks, the Telegraph reported on Saturday.
The journalist, 33-year-old Samer Elzaenen, reportedly wrote in a social media post, "We’ll burn Jews like Hitler did" and posted a series of antisemitic statements inciting violence. In a Facebook post from July 2022, Elzaenen wrote, "When things go awry for us, shoot the Jews, it fixes everything."
In another post from May 2011, he addressed "Zionist Jews," writing: "We are going to take our land back, we love death for Allah’s sake the same way you love life. We shall burn you as Hitler did, but this time we won’t have a single one of you left."
Over the past decade, Elzaenen repeatedly voiced support for more than 30 attacks on Israeli civilians, describing acts of terrorism as "blessed" and attackers as "heroes" and "martyrs" who "ascended" to "heaven."
BBC sources stressed that Elzaenen and Qannan are not employees of the broadcaster. However, their work as freelance contributors has sparked sharp criticism from media watchdog groups, who accuse the BBC of enabling anti-Israel bias through its Arabic-language service.
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) said the revelations demonstrate that BBC Arabic is using reporters who cannot be trusted to provide balanced and objective coverage. "The BBC misleadingly frames freelance journalists used by the Arabic service as mere 'contributors' so it won’t have to take responsibility for the hatred they regularly spew in social media," a CAMERA UK spokesperson said.
“Providing live reporting from the Gaza Strip and other world locations, it is not their opinion that the BBC asks them to share with its audience but their eyewitness, based on their presence on the ground. Freelancers who divulge such egregious bias should not be covering Israeli and Jewish affairs for the BBC. Any individual whose social media activity indicates their support for violence targeting Israel’s Jewish civilians lacks the basic journalistic skill of distinguishing between combatants and uninvolved bystanders.”
The controversy follows previous accusations against BBC Arabic journalists. Last year, the Telegraph revealed that another BBC Arabic correspondent, Ahmed Alagha, had described Israelis as "less than human" and Jews as "devils" on social media.
The latest revelations prompted calls for reform. Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch last month demanded a "wholesale reform" of BBC Arabic, following a CAMERA report accusing the service of "appalling antisemitism and anti-Israel bias."
In a letter to BBC Director-General Tim Davie, Badenoch wrote, "BBC Arabic is intended to provide high-quality, trusted news for the hundreds of millions of people who speak Arabic. It should uphold the highest standards of public-service broadcasting. Instead, it seems that the World Service may be fomenting extremism and misleading audiences – while funded by the taxpayer and licence fees. This is simply unacceptable and must stop.”
Several BBC Arabic presenters and journalists had previously been investigated for liking or sharing posts that celebrated the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, but no disciplinary action was taken at the time.
In a statement, the BBC said: “International journalists including the BBC are not allowed access into Gaza so we hear from a range of eyewitness accounts from the strip. These are not BBC members of staff or part of the BBC’s reporting team. We were not aware of the individuals’ social media activity prior to hearing from them on air. We are absolutely clear that there is no place for anti-Semitism on our services.”
